Seven Last Plagues Begin to Fall

[devotional at egwlists.whiteestate.org]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for September 16
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Seven Last Plagues Begin to Fall

And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the
seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the
wrath of God upon the earth. Rev. 16:1. 


When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the
unmingled wrath threatened against those who worship the
beast and his image and receive his mark (Revelation 14:9,
10), will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God
was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to
those more terrible and extensive judgments which are to
fall upon the world just before the final deliverance of
God's people. Says the revelator, in describing those
terrific scourges: "There fell a noisome and grievous sore
upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them
which worshipped his image." The sea "became as the blood
of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea." And
"the rivers and fountains of waters . . .became blood."
Terrible as these inflictions are, God's justice stands
fully vindicated. The angel of God declares: "Thou art
righteous, O Lord, . . . because thou hast judged thus. For
they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou
hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy."
Revelation 16:2-6. By condemning the people of God to
death, they have as truly incurred the guilt of their blood
as if it had been shed by their hands. . . . In the plague
that follows, power is given to the sun "to scorch men with
fire. And men were scorched with great heat." Verse 8, 9. .
. . 

These plagues are not universal, or the inhabitants of the
earth would be wholly cut off. Yet they will be the most
awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals. All
the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation,
have been mingled with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ
has shielded the sinner from receiving the full measure of
his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured out
unmixed with mercy. 

The bolts of God's wrath are soon to fall, and when He
shall begin to punish the transgressors, there will be no
period of respite until the end. The storm of God's wrath
is gathering, and those only will stand who are sanctified
through the truth in the love of God. They shall be hid
with Christ in God till the desolation shall be over past.

>From Maranatha - Page 267